Google ‘Maker’ Christmas Art take 3

From the Google Christmas Art series 08

Here’s today’s Google ‘Maker’ art. Looks like things are heating up, you can see that they are getting some steam happening. Whatever it is they are making, it appears to be working!

Speaking of ‘making’, you can make your own Skyaak DIY deuce…the cool ring-wing glider that you can download, laminate, custom-decorate, cut out, build and FLY for two bucks.

A buddy of mine popped over yesterday and I showed him the Model 3 and the DIY deuce. He told me that he is hard-core Frisbee enthusiast. At first he was a bit skeptical about the Skyaak design. It IS a rather unlikely-looking glider! Like nothing you’ve ever seen!

However, once we had tossed the deuce around the living-room a few times, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He told me that it flies surprisingly well, and he pointed out that the ‘finger flicker’ does exactly the same thing as a ‘throwing stick’ or ‘atlatl’; that is, it creates unexpected extra power with little or no exertion!

He also enthused about the fact that the deuce tends to lift its nose up by the time it reaches the recipient, making it (conveniently) easy to grab out of the air by the shaft! Yeah, that is definitely a bonus feature that you will notice and enjoy!

You can clearly see in this brief clip how the DIY deuce lifts up its nose when it’s gliding through the air. This is the ‘positive incidence’ that we talked about earlier. Just means that the design of the ring-wings create ‘lift’ as it propels forward. Basically, the more thrust you have, the greater the lift. The ‘finger flicker’ (read: atlatl) feature is your ticket to a lot more airborne power.